Elsberry city board reviewing project

With several scheduled visitors absent and tabling of matters, it was an abbreviated City of Elsberry meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 14.

With Jay Gourley not present, there were no updates from Boonslick Regional Planning Commission. However, Ken Woods stated that they just submitted the preliminary plans for review on the Lakeview project.

“I don’t know exactly how long you want to take to review them, but DNR (Department of Natural Resources) is pushing [for something to be done rather quickly],” explained Woods.

After a small discussion and getting feedback from Marshall Suddarth, supervisor for Alliance Water Resources in Elsberry, Mayor Terry Martin said they would take the week to review.

Sarah Hunt, librarian for Palmer Memorial Library wanted to bring two things before the council; the first one being the air conditioning within the building.

“We have the same AC in our building that went in when it was built in 1990,” explained Hunt. “They’re working, but not efficiently and it’s the same problem with the heating. I only bring this up because I know the City will be working on budgeting for next year soon and am hoping this could be considered when doing it.”

Hunt went on to say she had Peters come out and have a look at the units and their suggestion was to replace the units. Although the job would still have to go out for bid, if approved, the projected cost was $6,700 just for the AC. To have the heating done at the same time would be $13,900.

The other issue Hunt wanted to address was getting the filters on a change schedule, as they are not being done as often as they should.

Next up was the certification of the recent election results pertaining to “The Bond Issue, which passed in April, but due to a typographical error had to run again. According to Cordsiemon, the issue passed with 52-18.

It was then time to act on unfinished business, at which time the council discussed updated mapping of water and sewer lines, occupancy inspections for multi-unit complexes and the demolition project. For the updated mapping of water and sewer, Suddarth explained the city could look into the matter further using what they have. However, it could cost double of just using a Geographic Informational System (GIS).

On the topic of occupancy inspections for multi-unit complexes, Elsberry City Attorney Rob Guinness explained following a meeting amongst the staff, where they were trying to come up with a workable solution to a growing problem. According to him, there is supposed to be an inspection each time a tenant moves out and a new person moves in.

Guinness went on to explain how one solution mentioned was to simply have an annual inspection done on all facilities and charge a lesser rate, but the senior citizens housing didn’t like that because they have so few annual changes. He said they then went and spoke with Jennifer Pritchett, manager for Taylor Terrace, and came up with a proposed idea that could work for everyone.

The solution here is that every three months, on the water bill, they would either state there are no changes at this time. Also every six months they would have to provide a list of who all is occupying their facilities to make sure no one is lying to the city. As the city continues to weed out the single meter multi-unit complexes, this will become less and less of a problem. For now the matter was tabled till next month.

Next on the agenda was new business, where the board had to decide whether or not they wanted to renew their contract with the Lincoln County Collector for tax collections. The board decided to approve the topic.